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Bay named NL Player of the Week

Bay named NL Player of the Week

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By Daniel Berk
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MLB.com |

Playing in the National League Central, Jason Bay visits Cincinnati's Great American Ball Park a few times each season.

Nearly every time the slugger comes through Cincinnati, he leaves with some impressive numbers. Bay's last visit wasn't any different, as the left fielder capped off a stellar week, and had back-to-back three-RBI games over the weekend against the Reds.

The 28-year-old Bay went 10-for-20 last week with an on-base percentage of .571. Bay drove in 10 runs, had six runs scored and banged out three doubles in the seven-day span. On Tuesday, Bay was named National League Player of the Week.

Over the weekend, Bay had another great series at Great American Ballpark. On Friday, Bay went 2-for-3 with a home run, two RBIs and two runs scored against the Reds. He followed that up by going 3-for-4 the next night with three more RBIs. Bay wasn't done. On May 27, he again drove in three runs and slugged another home run, his seventh of the season.

"You don't really change [your approach] much," said the Pittsburgh left fielder of playing in the Cincinnati park. "For some reason you just see it better here. It's just one of those things. Obviously you look at the numbers and I know that they are fairly good."

Bay helped his team take three of four from the Reds and creep back up in the NL Central standings.

Before the season, Bay was a career .361 hitter at Great American Ball Park and had 10 home runs. He continued that excellent run last week. In Bay's first trip to the park in April, he went 3-for-12. Bay is now hitting .375 at Cincinnati's home park, the highest for all Major Leaugers with at least 100 at-bats.

"I knew I was close [to the top]," Bay said. "You still have to go out there and play. It's not like you are guaranteed anything. It's definitely one of the better ballparks to play in, for me anyway."

The two-time NL All-Star won Player of the Week honors in consecutive weeks in 2006, when he took home the award on May 21 and May 28.

Among those also considered for the award, which is presented by Bank of America, were Bay's teammate Chris Duffy (.400, four doubles, two RBIs), Arizona's Mark Reynolds (.480, two home runs, eight RBIs), Washington's Dmitri Young (.522, four doubles, six RBI), San Diego's Jake Peavy (2-0, 0.69 ERA, 14 strikeouts) and San Francisco's Bengie Molina (.400, 10 hits, eight RBIs).

Daniel Berk is an associate reporter to MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.